


Defiling the Dead

by Spindizzy



Category: Final Fantasy XII
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-15
Updated: 2009-11-15
Packaged: 2017-10-02 22:29:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spindizzy/pseuds/Spindizzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ashe didn't seem to appreciate the fact that 'defiling the dead' was a neccessary part of life. [Set just before Raithwall's Tomb.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defiling the Dead

Vaan's hands were quick and steady - he was a thief and he needed them, but that never seemed to stop the others being surprised at how neatly and quickly he could skin animals, how fast he was at snatching up trinkets dropped by the enemies they defeated before they sank into the sand or darkness never to be found again.

Most of them understood why he did it - it was roughly the same reason that Balthier would risk his cuffs to help pick through bones and rags and fur to find things they could use or sell.

Ashe was not "most of them."

"We do not have _time_ for you to defile the dead," Ashe snapped when Vaan and Balthier started to stir through the remains of the urutan-yensa they'd killed. The two looked at each other, Vaan surprised and Balthier curious. Finally, the sky pirate rose, turning a wind stone over in his hands consideringly.

"We'll have to _make_ time if you want to eat, princess. Or can the insurgence -"

_"Resistance."_

"- afford to keep you in luxury without resorting to grave robbery?" He looked from Vossler to Ashe and smirked slightly, flicking the stone to the soldier as he passed between them. "Lucky them."

Ashe turned to Vossler, mouth opening - and closing again when he wouldn't meet her eyes.

When the others moved on to the next platform, Ashe lingered with Vossler, her expression suggesting that any eavesdroppers would find themselves impaled and left to feed the monsters. Not that it stopped Balthier leaning against the tanker with his arms folded and an eyebrow raised, or Vaan looking at Balthier for a while, biting his lip, then crouching next to him. Penelo glared at them - well, at Vaan - Fran raised an eyebrow, and Basch seemed determined to ignore that just over half their party wasn't accompanying them.

There wasn't much worth listening to - Ashe's voice was low enough and the wind high enough that her words were lost easily. Vossler's voice was audible, but his words weren't. That didn't stop Balthier smiling crookedly. "It's terrible when the leading man's reduced to spelling out the truth of the world."

Vaan peered around the corner, expression almost sympathetic. "Someone had to tell her."

Balthier blinked, looking down at Vaan as though to say _'You have no idea.'_ "I suppose they did."

When Ashe was finished, Vaan and Balthier had already moved on. She wouldn't speak to them, and the look she shot Balthier fairly dripped with poison. He simply smiled and half-bowed, indicating for her to lead the way.

Lead the way she did, and when they took down another band of urutan-yensa, it was Ashe who stepped forwards and flicked another stone out of the thing's corpse, chin raised and gaze defiant where it rested on Balthier's face.


End file.
